My audits

The Surgical Audit and Peer Review Guide (PDF 118.79KB) aims to assist Fellows to undertake regular peer reviewed surgical audit and contains a guide to minimum and expanded data sets for effective audit.

The following specific audit activities are recognised within the RACS CPD Program

The Australian and New Zealand Audit of Surgical Mortality (ANZASM) is an independent, external peer review of surgical mortality in all states and territories of Australia and New Zealand. Each Audit of Surgical Mortality (ASM) is funded by its state or territory Department of Health (Western Australia, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory). New South Wales provides comparable data to ANZASM but is independently managed by the Clinical Excellence Commission (CEC) of NSW.

To comply with the College's Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program, it is a 'requirement to participate in the Australian and New Zealand Audit of Surgical Mortality if a surgeon is in operative based practice, has a surgical death and an audit of surgical mortality is available in the surgeon's hospital'.

The Australasian Vascular Audit application has been provided to the members of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Vascular Surgery and its support staff to allow the efficient collection of data involved in the vascular surgery audit process.

Access to this application is restricted to those with username and password privileges. If you believe you should have access to this area or are experiencing difficulties please call +61 3 9276 7414

Find out more at ANZ SVS or contact [email protected]

The Australian Breast Device Registry (ABDR) is a federally funded, national clinical quality registry, providing a reliable national tracking system for breast devices and a standardised structure for unbiased and independent reporting of device performance and patient outcomes. Surgeons record device and procedural details on a ‘stick & tick' form and receive their own data, enabling them to track their patients, devices inserted/explanted and major complications. The registry produces an annual report of aggregate data.

To find out more contact [email protected]

The Australian Otolaryngology (Head and Neck) Quality Assurance Network (AOQAN) is the realisation of a national database facilitating the assessment of quality assurance and outcome satisfaction of otolaryngology and head and neck therapies.

Presidents and the executive of ASOHNS have recognised the importance of establishing national databases and outcomes data for the benefit of our patients, our professional practice and our professional standing.

This is an Australian quality registry for Head and Neck tumour therapies, Rhinology and a Cochlear Implant registry.

AOQAN data is stored securely in an Australian based data centre run by Microsoft. The Microsoft Azure Cloud Technology has been assessed by the Australian Government and certified by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). Commonwealth Qualified Privilege covers AOQAN and the collection, storing and reporting of de-identified patient and surgical data for the purpose of the database.

The audit is for ASOHNS members. If members wish to register as a user, they can do so online https://www.aoqan.org/register/ or by contacting the ASOHNS Office: (02) 9954 5856

Note, members are able to add practice staff and registrars as assistants to enter data on their behalf.

Find out more at  www.aoqan.org

The Australian and New Zealand Emergency Laparotomy Audit – Quality Improvement (ANZELA-QI) has been established for the purpose of providing hospitals with contemporary data to support local initiatives to improve the quality of patient care relating to the management of the acute abdomen.

Find out more at ANZELA-QI or contact [email protected]

The Australian & New Zealand Thyroid Cancer Registry (ANZTCR) is a clinical quality registry, which collects information about the diagnosis, treatment and outcomes of individuals diagnosed with thyroid cancer. The registry is managed by the Cancer Research Program in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University.

The Australasian Pelvic Floor Procedure Registry (APFPR) is an Australian Commonwealth Government health initiative established to record information about surgeries for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and pelvic organ prolapse (POP) procedures. It is a clinician-led national clinical quality registry managed by Monash University.

For more information APFPR

The primary aim of the Bariatric Surgery Registry is to measure outcomes for patients undergoing bariatric surgery across public and private hospitals in Australia and New Zealand. It is predominantly a quality and safety registry. This proposal has the support of the Australian & New Zealand Metabolic and Obesity Surgery Society (ANZMOSS) and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), which regards the registry establishment as an important step forward in monitoring and evaluating patient outcomes across Australia and New Zealand.

Find out more about the Bariatric Surgery Registry or contact [email protected]

Run by the Colorectal Surgery Society of Australia and New Zealand, (CSSANZ) the BCCA seeks to develop a comprehensive clinical registry across Australia and New Zealand to improve the quality of care provided to patients diagnosed with bowel cancer which is the third commonest cancer by incidence.

Find out more about the Bi-National Colorectal Cancer Audit or contact [email protected]

The BreastSurgANZ Quality Audit (BQA) aims to improve the quality of surgical care for patients with early and locally advanced breast cancer in Australia and New Zealand. Participants can self-assess their clinical performance against set key performance indicators and high-quality performance indicators.

Research into breast cancer treatment and outcomes using de-identified audit data forms an important part of the audit's value.  Breast Surgeons of Australia and New Zealand (BreastSurgANZ), directors of the audit, require members to submit data on all cases of early and locally advanced breast cancer.  The BQA Subcommittee is responsible for providing direction, oversight and clinical advice to the operation of the audit.

This audit was formerly directed by the Breast Surgery Section of the College as the National Breast Cancer Audit. Initiated as a pilot study in 1998, it has been running continuously since then. RACS now manages the audit on behalf of Breast SurgANZ, who took over the audit's direction in late 2010.  The database currently contains over 200,000 episodes of breast cancer, with over 300 surgeons contributing data each year from across Australia and New Zealand.

Members of BreastSurgANZ are automatically allocated an audit account for collecting and submitting data. Non-member access to the online portal for their own self-audit purposes is also available for a fee; however, non-members are not considered participants of the audit, nor are they provided with the other benefits and services of participation (beyond help desk support). 

Find out more about the BreastSurgANZ Quality Audit (BQA)  or contact [email protected] or call +61 8 8219 0939

The Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry – Australia and New Zealand is a large-scale prostate cancer registry that collects information on the care provided and the outcomes for men diagnosed with prostate cancer in Australia and New Zealand.

Find out more at PCOR-ANZ 

Functioning since 2001, the Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons' (ANZSCTS) cardiac surgery database program now acquires a defined dataset of demographic, preoperative, operative and postoperative information from 56 adult Cardiac Surgical Units (CSUs) in Australia and New Zealand. The Program is open to all contributing Units and cardiac surgeons.

The Program is recognised as a full clinical quality registry and is a Declared Activity under Part VC of the Health Insurance Act 1973. The performance of contributing CSU’s against five Key Performance Indicators is statistically evaluated quarterly. A robust, interactive, remedial process is initiated with Units that are identified as performance outliers.

The Program publishes an extensive Annual Report that enables Units to compare their outcomes against all contributors over a wide range of parameters. Each report includes a detailed examination of a specific aspect of Cardiac Surgery, which differs each year. The Annual Report is sent to Departments of Health, hospital CEOs and Directors of Units. Further, it is accessible on: http://anzscts.org/database .

The entire dataset is available to contributors for research on application to the Program’s Research Committee, resulting in 95 publications in peer-reviewed journals so far.  Utilising its dataset, the Program has produced three generations of risk adjustment algorithms that are used for benchmarking and are available to all surgeons.

At any time, contemporary data can be extracted through the Program’s web system by individual surgeons and units for analysis, or as semi-customised reports.

For more information contact  E: [email protected] or T:  + 61 03 9903 0229.

Run by the Australian Hand Surgery Society (AHSS).

Find out more about the Carpal Tunnel Audit for Hand Surgeons.

This audit was established by the Australian and New Zealand Endocrine Surgeons. (ANZES)

Find out more at https://www.endocrinesurgeons.org.au/ or contact [email protected].

The Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry (AOANJRR) is an initiative of the Australian Orthopaedic Association (AOA). The AOANJRR was established in 1999 becoming fully national in mid 2002. The purpose of the AOANJRR is to improve and maintain the quality of care for individuals receiving joint replacement surgery. Information on hip, knee, shoulder, elbow, wrist, ankle and spinal disc replacement is collected from all hospitals in Australia undertaking joint replacement surgery.

Find out more at AOANJRR or contact [email protected]

In 1997 the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association (NZOA) agreed to establish a national Hip and Knee Register to be based at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Christchurch Hospital, directed by Professor Alastair Rothwell (Chairman and Registry Supervisor). While this initiative was intended to mark 30 years of joint arthroplasty in New Zealand it was also recognised that there was a real need to collect data on implants and outcomes. In 2000 data collection was expanded to include total hip replacements for fractured neck of femur, unicompartmental replacements for knees, and total joint replacements for ankles, elbows and shoulders.

Find out more about the New Zealand National Joint Registry or contact [email protected].

The Victorian Cardiac Outcomes Registry (VCOR) is a state-wide, population-based clinical quality registry. It is a centralised quality assurance project aiming to improve the quality of care provided to patients with cardiovascular disease. 

VCOR is coordinated by Monash University in conjunction with the Victorian Cardiac Clinical Network and participating public and private Victorian hospitals. VCOR collects data about patients undergoing relevant cardiac treatments, procedures and interventions and follows up on medical outcomes and complications up to 30 days after a patient has been discharged from hospital. This information is used to then report the outcomes of interventions and treatments back to hospitals and relevant stakeholders to help determine what factors contribute to and promote better patient outcomes. It also helps to identify what issues may be impeding more successful outcomes in some settings. These reports provide a unique opportunity for health care providers to benchmark their performance against other public and private Victorian health services. Ultimately, we hope to be able to benchmark performance both nationally and internationally in the future. 

Find out more about the Victorian Cardiac Surgery Database or contact [email protected]

The Victorian State Trauma Registry (VSTR) monitors the performance and effectiveness of the Victorian State Trauma System (VSTS), collecting information about all major trauma patients from every hospital and healthcare facility in Victoria.

Find out more at VSTRM or contact [email protected]

RACS provides the Morbidity Audit and Logbook Tool (MALT) to Trainees, IMGs, Fellows and Fellows undertaking sub-specialisation.. It is also available for JDocs, surgeons enrolled in the maintenance of Professional (MoPS) Standards Program, and surgeons associated with the Pacific Islands Program (PIP).

Access MALT

Find out more about the College's Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program or contact [email protected]